Manglares, Espacios Gentrificados y Turismo en el Sur de Esmeraldas

The presentation is part of a study by the Cultural Studies Research Group of the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana. The setting is the marine-coastal area of the Bolívar parish, Muisne canton, south of the province of Esmeraldas, belonging to the “Muisne River Estuary Mangrove Wildlife Refuge.” The study seeks to analyze the links between the population and the ecosystem in a context of growing tourist activity, rural gentrification and territorial dispossession. In Ecuador, public policies have promoted the investment of national and international capital in infrastructure and tourism promotion. However, the dynamics of capital investment in tourism activities by large companies has generated relationship mechanisms with the ecosystem and the territory that can be classified as rural gentrification and territorial dispossession. At the same time, a gap has been generated between the investments and capabilities of large tourism companies or corporations and those of small community and family initiatives that seek to obtain resources for their material and cultural survival through tourist activities. The residents have experienced various productive and cultural transformations in relation to their previous subsistence practices based on agriculture, the sea and mangroves, currently manifesting other cultural practices and perceptions about the ecosystem and tourism. The question to be answered is: How do the inhabitants of the southern area of the province of Esmeraldas think and experience their ecosystem in a context of emerging tourism, rural gentrification, territorial dispossession and cultural changes?.